Silence fell between us as I held Sunchild in an unwavering grip, the tip of my sword pointing at the ground casually. Neither the baron's son or his two friends seemed to have any idea how to react, and judging by the reaction of Constadonia, neither did she.

  "That's the Hero of Kvatch you idiot." Hissed his other friend just a little too loudly, and somehow even more blood drained from Nigenix's face.

  "Oh... I... Ah..." he stammered, his sword now obviously quivering from nerves more than anything else.

  "Well? If we are to duel I would prefer it to be sooner than later. The night isn't going to last forever."

  Melomo stepped forward, grabbing his rash friend by the sword arm and pushing the blade down from where it had begun to shake even more. "I'm sorry for the disturbance Sir, please don't concern yourself unduly with my friend here. It was an honest mistake."

  "Very well." I twirled Sunchild in my hand, reversing the blade and sliding it back into its scabbard with a click in the same way that Belisarius sheathed his katana. While nowhere near as effortless and flawless as the sword champion of the Blades made it look, the six months of practice were well worth their looks of astonishment at the action.

  "Come brother, a bottle of Surilie's and other maidens await."

  Dragging off the mildly protesting Nigenix the trio beat a hasty retreat, only pausing momentarily to bow in the direction of myself and Constadonia before disappearing through the door of the tavern. Adjusting my cloak, I turned and gave a bow to the young lady, smiling slightly as I did so.

  "You you all right m'lady?"

  She nodded. "Yes. Thank you." Pausing, and glancing between myself and the swiftly closing door to the tavern a dozen metres away she didn't seem to know how to react. "Are you really the hero of Kvatch?"

  "One of them, yes." I replied simply. "I hope my presence hasn't caused any problems for you."

  "No. No of course not. Nigenix will get over it and I have nothing to fear from him or his father." She glanced at me a smiled a true smile. "Although, I hope you realise that by noon tomorrow, half the city will believe he crossed swords with the Hero of Kvatch?"

  "And by tomorrow evening he will be known for successfully besting him in a duel that lasted for hours. Maybe I should have cut him a little and gave him a scar to help sell the story."

  She giggled, covering her mouth with a gloved hand and trying to get a better look at me while not looking directly at me. "I'm glad you didn't, he is barely tolerable as it is. You have my thanks though Sir Desin."

  "Your welcome. It's a nice change of pace to put young noblemen in their place." Thudding my fist into my chest, I bowed slightly again, meeting her gaze with my own that was less human than before. "If you desire I would be honoured to escort you home or to a location of your choosing."

  As had dozens before her over the months, she didn't seem to notice the way my eyes darkened with shadows as we looked into each other's eyes. While I was still in control, the beast was growing stronger with a potential meal standing before it and any resistance she had faded in a heartbeat. "I would be honoured Sir Knight."

  With a gesture I fell into step alongside her, moving and keeping in step with her as we moved along the city streets. While we walked side by side, she was leading the way but would glance at me every dozen paces or so. It would have been impossible for her to realise but with every sideways glance, every time that her eyes met mine, my dark charisma bubbled out and continued infecting her with its taint. By the time we had made our way into the depths of the noble districts she was entirely within my control and enamoured with me in more ways than one.

  "Is this your home?" I asked quietly as we approached a three story manor set off on a cul-de-sac alongside several other home for the wealthy.

  "Only in winter." Constadonia replied, smiling up at me. Her fingers were by now interlaced with my own and I had spent the last few minutes marvelling at how soft and delicate she was. If I was honest, Viconia was several times more beautiful but she was entirely hard and unyielding. Constadonia in comparison felt as fragile as spun glass, as though I would break her fingers by merely holding her hand.

  "A winter residence?" she saw the way that I couldn't help but shake my head at the thought.

  "As I said Sir Desin, my father is a very wealthy man."

  "Placer mines and gemstone trading."

  Her smile continued and while to any onlookers if there were any about she would have appeared slightly inebriated, she was in fact entirely under my control. My willpower had overwhelmed her, and while I knew that it could be strong enough to melt someone's mind and leave them a vegetable, she instead was left utterly infatuated with me.

  "Well, it appears that this is where we must part ways."

  I nodded. "Indeed. I am glad that you were able to make it home safely."

  "The entire county's militia couldn't have provided better protection than yourself. A commendable success."

  Bowing at the waist with my fist on my breastplate, I nodded once and then turned on my heel as she returned the gesture. My task complete, I made my way across the cul-de-sac, feeling her eyes on me every step of the way as she stood at the door to her home.

  At the end of the street, in the shadows between lanterns I stepped once onto the solid cobblestones before stepping through the folding shadows and fading from sight. My face was now taut and fangs pushing against my lips despite no one in the street to see it, but within the instant of fading into the night it was impossible for anyone to have detected me.

  To Constadonia, I would have simply slipped from sight, disappearing down the street and out of her life. Instead I shifted through the darkness, moving and hugging my way along the walls and flitting across thirty metres of street in just a few seconds. In the space of time it took for her to turn to the door and reach with a gloved hand towards the brass handles I had slipped into one of the alley's between her home and her neighbour's watching her every move from the shadows.

  I could hear and even feel the way that her heart was beating, feeling the way that her pulse finally began to slow its thunderous pace from my proximity. The control I had over her was almost complete and impossible to break, and for those handful of seconds she stood facign the door, reaching for the handles but not quite touching them with an expression of puzzlement on her porcline features.

  Hidden in the shadows and invisable from all sight, it should have been impossible for me to be seen but she turned and looked right into my eyes once more. The smile on her face, while remaining somewhat that of a dullard was pure and filled with joy. My control over her was absolute, drawing her away from the door and moving itno the darkness of the alley where I waited.

  In the weeks previously I had fed in a similar manner, choosing and going to great lengths not to be caught but also not to kill or harm those I fed upon unless I couldn't help it. Feeding every three of four days allowed me to control the urge to drain my victims of every drop, and my basic skill at restoration allowed me to ensure that no scars or marks would be left on their flesh.

  I had realised very quickly after becoming a vampire that my tastes in victims lay very specifically in young women than anyone else. Women in the early years of womanhood, no less than ten years younger than me seemed to suit my palate and while I had fed on nearly every race and age that I could imagine, outside of battle I had very specific tastes. The simple act of bending their minds with my own was intoxicating almost as much as the act of feeding upon them was, and what had surprised me somewhat was that my appetites did not extend to their bodies as well. Controlling them, dominating them and drinking of their blood was enough to satiate the beast for a couple of days and in this manner I had not succumbed to any other desires.

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  At least, not while feeding in this particular way. in battle, or during times where my blood was up it was a differnet story as I had discovered with the bandit so many months ago on the road near Anvil. I may have had a thirst for blood and a desire for sex, the two emotions were kept quite separated unless brought on by battle or conflict.

  And so Constadonia unconsciously discovered my tastes for her did not include that of her body as she stepped into the darkness of the alley, and found a pair of shadowy arms wrap tight around her. Her mind, while not entirely her own was running purely on instinct, and while I would have found it easy to shred or otherwise remove her dress nad ravish her she simply gave herself to me in other ways. My control over my will was growing more and more acute, and I somehow instinctively knew that she would have no recollection of my feeding. If she did remember anything, she would easily put it down to being a half-remember dream brought upon a combination of lust and alcohol.

  There was no fear in her eyes as she gazed into the dark whirlpools of ink that had consumed my own, instead there was a sultry smile that I had seen the like of several times on Viconia's face. The lust and dark attraction that the vampire provided was enough to ensnare almost anyone I chose, but she seemed to be giving herself to the shadows far more freely than some that I had fed upon previously. Her warm body pressed into my own, her hands looping around my shoulders and filling my nose with the scent of perfume even as our lips came together. The shudder of what should have been horror at the tight flesh of my lips and jaw was instead one of pleasure and she sighed into my arms.

  With a strange hunger that almost matched my own she ran her fingers through my hair, pulling me into the kiss even as my arms drew her further into my dark embrace. Her heart fluttered with lust as she felt my clawed fingers run down the length of her spine not covered by her long dress and tight corset, shivering in my grasp even as she pulled her lips away from my own. Even without my enhanced senses, I could tell her body was aflame with lust as she licked the taste of me from her lips, tasting the small measure of blood where my fangs had pricked her lower lip.

  The merest drop of blood ran through my mouth like fire, electrifying me even as I pulled her close and my tongue snaked in and caressed her own. The tiniest drop of blood from her lip had sent me wild, and we passionately kissed like long lost lovers for several moments, until the thirst grew stronger still and I found my mouth moving on its own accord.

  Like tender kisses of a lover I moved down her cheek and down along her smooth neck, feeling the strange fluttering pulse under my lips even as I was forced to keep her upright as her knees buckled. A growl echoed from my throat as my fangs peeled my lips apart, my tongue lavishing kisses on her smooth neck that was aflame with desire for the beast within me. I tasted her body, feeling the hard pumping of her blood under my lips and as my jaw distended horribly and my face elongated in the form of a demon once more, I sank my fangs into the vein of her throat.

  She startled at the strange intrusion of my fangs in her flesh and surprisingly there was no resistance from her at all. Even with my will controlling their every action many of my victims instinctively fought against me. Some would struggle and writhe at the feeling of my fangs into their flesh, others would simply fall limp and nerveless. Constadonia instead groaned with pleasure digging her fingers into the soft gaps of my armour as though she was dragging me in rather than the opposite. There was a hunger in her that matched my own and I found myself slightly concerned and amused at this merchant prince's daughter hidden side.

  I drank from her as easily as I would decant a wineglass, feeling the vein in her throat pulsing into my mouth and throat and allowing me to simply gulp and swallow the warm mouthfuls. A part of me enjoyed the taste, and texture and every tiny sensation, and a smaller portion of my mind railed against it, wishing nothing more to twist aside and retch and void my body of her blood. That portion of me seemed to be growing smaller and dimmer and less insistent with every passing day and successful feed and I wasn't entirely sure whether I was fighting to hold onto it anymore.

  As the beating of her heart grew weaker and began to flutter unexpectedly I pulled away, felling the last mouthful slide down my throat and leaving me with the taste of her youth and strangely enough the flavour of the wine she had been drinking all evening. Unlike some of my previous feedings there was little trace of it, only a pair of tiny rivulets making their way slowly down her white, powdered flesh.

  Unlike my other feedings this one left me feeling uneasy and I found the hairs on my neck prickling with a wave of gooseflesh that ran from my temples to my feet in a wave. I was fed, sated and even with the insensible woman in my arms acting as though she had just experienced her most intense lovemaking I couldn't help but feel the strange sensation of fear worming its way through my mind.

  Within the darkest portions of the alley, furthest from the front of the mansion there was a presence, a shadow within the night that had no right in being there. It was perfectly still and hidden, motionless and blending into the darkness. If not for my somewhat recent experience, I would have thought that one of the Bosmer Rangers were present but this was no naturally gifted and enchanted wood elf. This was something akin to the corruption and taint within me and it was watching my every move.

  Still holding Constadonia in my grasp as she moaned insensibly, I turned and faced the presence, looking through the darkness with my vampiric sight at the humanoid figure hiding there. We shared more than just our love of the shadows, and for a second its stealth slipped and revealed the hard-boned visage of another vampire. It was fully fleshed as the creature, eyes as burning coals and fangs fully lengthened and gleaming between gash like lips.

  Before I could move, growl or even attempt to place the woozy girl down on the ground the other vampire was gone, wrapping the shadows around itself like a cloak and vanishing without a trace. Even with a stomach full of blood and the warmth of the night a chill crawled down my spine. Of all the vampires I had faced, I had never seen one simply retreat without challenge and for a moment I could have sworn that its expression had pity mixed in with the anger.

  Wasting no time, I pressed my fingertips into the pair of puncture wounds in the girl's throat, feeling the restoration magicka flow through my hand and into her flesh. Come morning there wouldn't be the slightest blemish day and other than strange dreams that were bound to visit her in her sleep in the nights to come there would be no evidence that she had been paid visit to by a vampire. Lifting her to her feet and holding her head as she found her balance, I pushed my mind into hers once more, releasing my hold on her as she stumbled around the corner into the light. Only when I heard the rattle of the door and the creak of hinges closing did I wrap myself fully in the shadows and fled as fast as I could.

  Avoiding streetlamps and the few armed patrols that were making their way through the city, I sped towards my destination. Rosethorn hall was easy to find within the chapel district, and while we had not stayed there often over the previous months both Viconia and I were familiar enough with the city to find it no matter the time of day. Still cloaked in shadow and hidden despite the rising full moon I climbed up the side of the building, choosing to enter via the bedroom balcony rather than risk running into our maid Eyja.

  The door opened a fraction before closing shortly after I entered. Somehow blending into the shadows allowed me to fit through gaps that should have been impossible but as I entered the bedroom I shifted into physicality once more. the room was darker than a moonless night, the candles long since burnt out and leaving nothing more than their waxy aftertaste in the back of the throat.

  Unlike the vampire in the alley, the presence at my spine this time was a welcome one. Even despite the sharpened edge of a dagger coming to rest in my armpit. The point was as sharp as my fangs but it barely even caressed the tunic I wore under my breastplate.

  "I somehow keep forgetting just how stealthly you can be." I said simply, feeling the dagger's point shift as Viconia stepped in closer.

  "I should be for one who was raised away from all this worthless light." A different set of burning eyes gleamed in the darkness, a pair of priceless rubies rather than the burning embers of the vampire I had encountered. "I trust you had a productive evening?"

  "You could say so."

  The dagger traced a pattern across and down my breastplate as I faced her and I didn't need my vampiric sight to known that she was wearing far less than myself. By the sounds alone there was little more than a silken nightgown wrapped around her shoulders, if that.

  As it always did, her caress left me tingling and shivering but I pulled away slightly as her fingertip brushed across my lips.

  "You missed some." She said simply, feeling the stickiness of drying blood that I had forgotten to wipe away in my effort to distance myself from the other creature of the night. I went to knuckle it away on the back of my hand but she moved quicker, stepping in closer, grasping me by the back of the head and drawing me down into a kiss.

  There was no softness in Viconia like young noblewoman Constadonia as she gripped me tight and ran her tongue up the side of my jaw. There was also no denying the similar hunger that we shared as she licked the last of the blood away, shuddering with pleasure at the taste even as my hands gripped her tight. The dagger clattered to the floor, followed shortly after by my breastplate and everything else we were wearing.